The Boston University men's soccer team scored early and often in its largest margin of victory ever against a Harvard squad with a 5-1 win on Tuesday night at Nickerson Field. The Terriers improve to 3-4-2 after their final non-conference game of the regular season, while the Crimson drops to 3-3-0.
Harvard's Andre Akpan headed in a goal off Brian Grimm's free kick soon thereafter at 5:03 to tie the game at 1-1, but the Terriers' offense would regain the lead and never look back.
Junior Shaun Taylor was awarded a penalty kick after being pulled down in the Crimson box in the 19th minute. He converted for the game winner, and then less than 90 seconds later, freshman Stephen Knox blocked a pass for the turnover and quickly tacked on another score for the 3-1 lead at the half.
Taylor recorded his second goal of the game at 59:38 when he headed in a cross from Bustamante as sophomore Aaron O'Neal was credited with a secondary assist. Taylor has now scored five goals in the past two home games after posting his first career hat trick against Colgate on Sept. 20.
The Terriers added their final goal at 62:04 when junior Samuel Appiah joined freshmen Bustamante and Knox by scoring his first goal of the season as well.
The four-goal margin was the largest win ever by BU against Harvard in a series that dates back to 1951. The previous record was three, set in 2005 (3-0) at BU and in 1992 (4-1) at Harvard. The Crimson still leads the overall series though, 22-11-7.
"Harvard's a good team, and that's the game sometimes," head coach Neil Roberts said. "Sometimes, it gets away from you. We gave each other goals in the first 10 minutes, and then it kind of settled down. Offensively, we scored some nice goals."
"We didn't play great in the last 10 minutes of the half, and they pressured us again in the first 10 minutes of the second half," he added. "But we were able to get the counterattack goal and put the game away."
Harvard finished the contest ahead in shots, 14-12, and corner kicks, 7-2. Joseph Alexander made two saves for the Crimson, while the Terriers' senior Hrafn Davidsson had two in 80 minutes of action. Junior Joe Cullaro played the final 10 and recorded a save of his own.
The Terriers have scored 13 goals in the last four home games (3-0-1) and will now focus their attention toward the America East as they face off against Albany.
"Saturday will be a new day," Roberts said. "Everybody is 0-0 on Saturday in the conference, so we have to play well. We are trying to get these guys to believe in what we are doing and how we are playing and that they can be successful. They didn't have a lot of success in the first part of the season. We played good teams, and we made mistakes that cost us games. We feel that if we can cut them out, we'll be a good team."
Saturday's matchup is set for 2 p.m. at Nickerson Field.